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An image featuring Naomi Osaka has won the Sports Photography of the Year award for 2022. The image, where Osaka can be seen helping out a butterfly on the tennis court, was captured by Reuters photographer and leading photojournalist David Gray.
Gray's simple yet impressive click won the big prize at the World Sports Photography Awards, beating more than 7000 other entries. The photo was taken during Osaka's third-round clash against Ons Jabeur at the 2021 Australian Open.
Gray clicked a 'shadow image' of Osaka helping out a butterfly during her match at John Cain Arena. The image was chosen as the winner for reflecting the beauty as well as the power of sport.
During the match, the butterfly first landed on Osaka's leg and she carefully moved it to the side of the court. The insect decided to follow her and landed on her face, after which the Japanese superstar waited patiently for it to fly away.
Interestingly, Gray choosing to capture Osaka’s shadow tending to the butterfly added a little uniqueness to the image, which was one of 24 images that won awards across different sporting categories. While it was crowned the 'Photograph of the year', it was also the winner in the tennis category.
The World Sports Photography Awards are entered by some of the top sports photographers in the world and are judged by leading figures from the fields of sport, creativity, media, and brand.
In this year's edition of the Melbourne Major, Osaka was seen sporting custom 'butterfly shoes' made by Nike. As per Business Insider, a Nike representative revealed that the Japanese player's shoe design was inspired by the incident at the 2021 Australian Open.
Award-winning 'Naomi Osaka-butterfly' image beats other iconic tennis images from 2022
The image featuring Naomi Osaka, which won the big prize at the World Sports Photography Awards, beat some iconic pictures featuring the likes of Emma Raducanu, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, among others.
Two images of Nadal won the silver and bronze medals in the tennis category. In Andy Cheung's bronze medal-winning picture, Nadal can be seen tending to a butterfly, similar to Osaka.
The silver medal-winning image, taken by Jay Town, showed the Spaniard in full focus as he prepared to serve during a match at the 2021 Australian Open.
The moment Raducanu won the 2021 US Open as a qualifier was among other shortlisted clicks for the tennis category. Djokovic's Wimbledon title victory celebrations in 2021, Williams sporting a necklace that read 'Queen,' and Ashleigh Barty celebrating at Wimbledon, were among the other shortlisted tennis photos.
All the photos shortlisted for the tennis category can be seen here.
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